Man, the Jitterbugger's all over the place with his blawg posting today. And how about those names he drops? Whatever.
A posting in which we ramble on about this and that like we’re Led Zeppelin’s Rambling Man or something before we finally get to a
Dan Fogelberg video.
Read on . . .
I met the late and great Dan Fogelberg at a party once, and a nicer man I never met in what was, albeit, a brief encounter with him. The party was after one of his shows. I was dating someone at the time who knew him so well that we were welcomed backstage and attended this party later. I don’t even remember that date’s name but I remember I became a bigger fan of Dan after meeting him because he was so gracious, and a suave kind of guy for one who was in so tight with so many fast-living rockers in those days who were pretty grungy when you look back at those old album covers.
I always thought it was so cool that I partied with Dan Fogelberg. But my friend and colleague in United Methodist clergyness, Eric (click here for his blawg) Folkerth, and Rusty King, another clergy colleague who like Eric is also a musician, were invited by Dan’s widow Jean to perform at a special Fogelberg event in which musicians who keep Fogelberg’s music alive were invited (see down below for more on that from Eric who I messaged on Facebook and asked him to refresh my memory about). How cool is that????
Eric is a fine and mighty fine preacher but also a really good musician who has shared the stage with everybody from the angelic Joan Baez to the gritty James McMurtry (that’s Larry McMurtry’s son, of course, who I saw perform in Dallas not long ago. James is still one angry and cynical young man but it’s a good kind of anger at the injustices and inequities in the world. I met Larry McMurtry once in Houston (not an iota of anger in him, who has the gift of stillness), and actually have a letter he sent me on his stationery which has a couple of cute little pigs illustrated on it, and if you remember the opening scene of Lonesome Dove you know what that’s about. I’d written him and told him I’d met him years before and asked him to look at a short story I’d written and to give me some feedback and he did. He really liked it and said he thought the story was good to go and he wouldn’t change anything. He noted, however, that “the short story is just not my genre. I was never very good at it.” The story, about a guy who was given the wrong key to an already occupied San Antonio motel (which actually happened to me once) and walks in on a robber with a pistol on the bed who was in his underwear counting cash, won me a cool $1,000 prize in the writing contest and was published in a now defunct online literary journal. It was titled “Heavy Lunch,” the robber character’s nickname. McMurtry loved that. I’m sure the note he sent me on the distinctive McMurtry letterhead could bring a pretty penny on EBay or whatever it is where you can sell stuff like that. But there ain’t enough money that I would sell it. Come to think of it, I’m not even sure where it is; it’s in a box somewhere here in my man cave where I keep letters and articles I wrote and old pictures and stuff; I probably should find it. . . And BTW, I warned you this would be a rambling blawg posting today; should have mentioned that I shamelessly drop famous names in it.)
So anyway . . . The Fogelberg video below has old film clips with Cary Grant and Fred Astaire among others. I think Cary Grant and Fred Astaire are the two coolest guys who ever lived, speaking of really suave guys. I’m a clothes horse and pay way too much money for nice suits to work in sometimes, but if I could wear a suit as well as Cary Grant did, and could carry myself with that kind of grace and style, I would shamelessly steal Catherine Zeta Jones from Michael Douglas. Or steal young Charlize Theron from that guy she’s with now. That’s what I’d do.
Hey–I just speak my truth here.
Love this Dan song.
*Eric, who tells me he never met Dan Fogelberg but “almost did,” sent me this reply about he and Rusty’s performances at the Fogelberg thing:
Rusty and I were invited to the unveiling of the Fogelberg Memorial in Peoria, Illinois. It’s a lovely monument down by the river, with three stones etched with some of his lyrics.
His widow, Jean, thought that it would be cool to invite some of the bands around the country who keep Dan’s music alive to come play at this event. So, we got to play a show for his Mom, brothers, wife and all his friends, about 300 folks on Friday night of that weekend. Fans had come from all over the country.
It was an amazing night.
We all played two or three songs, solo … then a bunch of us just formed a pick-up band at the end of the night. I was playing “Run for the Roses” while Dan’s Mom walked in the room … it was like the Queen Mother entering.
Then, at the end of the night, a bunch of us who are each in bands in totally different parts of the country, got on stage and jammed for about 30 mins, until the hotel kicked us out.
My favorite moment was as we played “Phoenix” looking out over the crowd and seeing Jean Fogelberg (Dan’s wife) grinning ear to ear, and bouncing up and down with the crowd.
It was an amazing moment.
Speaking of dropping famous names, I once was talking to some staffers at the hospital about all the famous people I met in my reporter days and bragged that Linda Rondstadt winked at me after I interviewed her before a concert.
One of the young nurses said, “Who’s Linda Rondstadt?”
Another said, “Who’s Dan Fogelberg?”
Am I a sad old man or what?
Cool story Rev and -uh – I DO KNOW who Linda Rondstadt is.